IMG_20180401_100609 Our Easter eggs this yearThe middle one is the one my mom (who was visiting us at that time) painted with wax.
Date: 04/01/2018
The middle one is the one my mom (who was visiting us at that time) painted with wax. March 2018

IMG_20180401_105125 Egg knockingThe 6-year-old won the egg-knocking contest this Easter. His egg was the only one that didn't crack after hitting everybody else's egg.
Date: 04/01/2018
The 6-year-old won the egg-knocking contest this Easter. His egg was the only one that didn't crack after hitting everybody else's egg.

March 2018

IMG_20180401_105125 Egg knocking - three generationsClockwise from the left: E, Ray, my mom, my dad (who were visiting us), and R (and me, not in the picture since I was taking it) knock eggs on Easter morning. R, though youngest, won the egg-knocking contest. His egg was the only one that didn't crack aft
Date: 04/01/2018
Clockwise from the left: E, Ray, my mom, my dad (who were visiting us), and R (and me, not in the picture since I was taking it) knock eggs on Easter morning. Everybody knocks everybody else's egg (either the pointy end or the blunt end, whichever you prefer); at least one does it until his / her egg's both ends get cracked. The one who's egg (at least one end) remains intact, wins. Winning, however, doesn't mean anything except the bragging rights.

March 2018

IMG_20180331_194933 Mom and E paint eggs with waxMy mom, who was visiting, and E are painting Easter eggs with wax.
Date: 03/31/2018
My mom, who was visiting, and E are painting Easter eggs with wax. March 2018

IMG_20180331_201455 Eggs submerged in colorsEaster eggs, painted with wax and submerged in coloring (made of the common typical Easter egg color tablets one buys at a store). The rightmost one I wrapped in paper snowflakes and tied with rubber bands to make the paper stay on.
Date: 03/31/2018
Easter eggs, painted with wax and submerged in coloring (made of the common typical Easter egg color tablets one buys at a store). The rightmost one I wrapped in paper snowflakes and tied with rubber bands to make the paper stay on, but, as always, I miscalculated the size of the paper ornament needed to cover an egg, and as usual, nothing came of it.

March 2018

IMG_20180331_154448 Widget the OwlAt the Sherwood Forest Faire, perched on a handler's glove, Widget the Owl performs at the Sky Kings bird show. She even "participates" in the falconry lessons at the Sherwood Forest Youth Camp, where children get to wear a falconer's glove and
Date: 03/31/2018
At the Sherwood Forest Faire, perched on a handler's glove. Widget the Owl is one of the mainstay birds at the Sky Kings bird show. They always show a few of the same species of birds (owl, vulture, falcon, some others), but the birds themselves change year by year. Not Widget, though - she's been with them through the years, and she even "participates" in the falconry lessons at the Sherwood Forest Youth Camp, where children get to wear a falconer's glove and have her perch on it.

It's always a hit-or-miss as to whether she will obey a command, which has caused the main handler to say "good that you are so cute, because you are not very smart".

IMG_20180331_154458 Widget the Owl and her handlerAt the Sherwood Forest Faire, perched on a handler's glove, Widget the Owl performs at the Sky Kings bird show. She stars in the falconry lessons at the Sherwood Forest Youth Camp, where children get to wear a falconer's glove and have her perch on it.
Date: 03/31/2018
At the Sherwood Forest Faire, perched on a handler's glove. Widget the Owl is one of the mainstay birds at the Sky Kings bird show. They always show roughtly the same few species of birds (owl, vulture, falcon, some others), but the birds themselves change year by year. Not Widget, though - she's been with them through the years, and she even "participates" in the falconry lessons at the Sherwood Forest Youth Camp, where children get to wear a falconer's glove and have her perch on it.

It's always a hit-or-miss as to whether she will obey a command, which has caused the Sky Kings showguy (not sure what would be a more appropriate title) to say "good that you are so cute, because you are not very smart".

IMG_20180509_093738 Mother's Day at the elementary schoolAt the Mother's Day at his elementary school all the first graders showed off their reading and writing to their moms. They all recited a poem about themselves that they wrote. Then they served fruit, sweets, and lemonade to their moms.
Date: 05/09/2018
At the Mother's Day at his elementary school all the first graders showed off their reading and writing to their moms. They all recited a poem about themselves that they wrote. Then they served fruit, sweets, and lemonade to their moms.

IMG_20180517_153617 Austinites expressing their political views... on the back of the same truck where they advertise their business. Everybody knows who the "bastard" is in this small modification of Margaret Atwood's famous phrase. May 2018
Date: 05/17/2018
... on the back of the same truck where they advertise their business. Everybody knows who the "bastard" is in this small modification of Margaret Atwood's famous phrase. May 2018

IMG_20180521_170035 R's Kung Fu graduationR poses with his teacher at a Kung Fu graduation ceremony, during which he was awarded a higher level belt. May 2018
Date: 05/21/2018
R poses with his teacher at a Kung Fu graduation ceremony, during which he was awarded a higher level belt. May 2018

IMG_20180623_120438 R's birthday at Dart'Em UpR (second from right) and his team in the dart battle at Dart'Em Up on his birthday.
Date: 06/23/2018
R (second from right) and his team in the dart battle at Dart'Em Up on his birthday. June 2018

IMG_20180623_122812 In front of a mural at Dart'Em UpR (back row, second from right) and all the friends that attended his birthday pose with their dart guns in front of a mural at Dart'Em Up after the battle is over.
Date: 06/23/2018
R (back row, second from right) and all the friends that attended his birthday pose with their dart guns in front of a mural at Dart'Em Up after the battle is over. June 2018

IMG_20180623_125053 R's with a snake birthday cakeR at his 7th birthday at Dart'Em Up, with a birthday cake decorated by gummy snakes. Back then snake was still his favorite animal.
Date: 06/23/2018
R at his 7th birthday at Dart'Em Up, with a birthday cake decorated by gummy snakes. Back then snake was still his favorite animal. June 2018.

IMG_20180721_150024 Rumerica"Rumerica" scrawled on a wooden sign on the side of a busy road in Austin. In about two hours it was taken down. The sign appeared during a period of time when additional evidence of Russian interference in US elections was being discussed in th
Date: 07/21/2018
"Rumerica" scrawled on a wooden sign that was posted on the side of a busy road in Austin. In about two hours since it appeared, the sign was pulled out of the ground and left to lie on its side. The sign appeared during one of those periods of time when additional evidence of Russian interference in US elections was being discussed in the press.

faN9yJZPDUB In the Cyclone Anaya's Photo BoothE and R in the Cyclone Anaya's Photo Booth. February 2018.
Date: 11/30/2018
E and R in the Cyclone Anaya's Photo Booth. February 2018.

20180817_161429 All characters from E's Game Worlds gameAt the Game Worlds camp, E and her team of 5-6 students created a game "Attack of Arachnids". The Game Worlds theme that week was bugs. The plot of this game was an evil arachnid queen being avenged by her spurned lover, or something like that.
Date: 08/17/2018
At the Game Worlds camp, E and her team of about 5-6 students of similar age, created a game "Attack of Arachnids". The Game Worlds theme that week was bugs, so all the games were bug-related. The plot of this game was an evil arachnid queen being avenged by her spurned lover, or something like that.

These are the game characters. Apparently every student drew their own. E's character was a roly-poly.

August 2018

20180817_161731 Game Worlds: Attack On ArachnidsAt the Game Worlds camp, E presents a game that she and her team of 5-6 students created, "Attack on Arachnids". The Game Worlds theme that week was bugs. The plot of this game was revenge of a spurned lover against an evil arachnid queen, or so
Date: 08/17/2018
At the Game Worlds camp, E presents a game that she and her team of about 5-6 students of similar age created, "Attack on Arachnids". The Game Worlds theme that week was bugs, so all the games were bug-related. The plot of this game was a revenge of a spurned lover against an evil arachnid queen, or something like that.

August 2018

20180817_162014 Scene from Game Worlds Arachnids gameAt the Game Worlds camp, E presents a game that she and her team of 5-6 students created, "Attack on Arachnids". This is a snippet of dialogue from the game.
Date: 08/17/2018
At the Game Worlds camp, E presents a game that she and her team of 5-6 students created, "Attack on Arachnids". This is a snippet of dialogue from the game.

At the Game Worlds camp, E presents a game that she and her team of about 5-6 students of similar age created, "Attack on Arachnids". The Game Worlds theme that week was bugs, so all the games were bug-related. The plot of this game was a revenge of a spurned lover against an evil arachnid queen, or something like that.

August 2018

20180326_163208 R practices Kung Fu kickR practices a Kung Fu kick in his afterschool Kung Fu class. When my parents were visiting in March, they visited his class to see him practice, and took this picture.
Date: 12/05/2018
R practices a Kung Fu kick in his afterschool Kung Fu class. When my parents were visiting in March, they visited his class to see him practice, and took this picture.

March 2018

20180326_164056 R strikes a Kung Fu poseR strikes a Kung Fu pose in his afterschool Kung Fu class. When my parents were visiting in March, they visited his class to see him practice, and took this picture.
Date: 12/08/2018
R strikes a Kung Fu pose in his afterschool Kung Fu class. When my parents were visiting in March, they visited his class to see him practice, and took this picture.

20180915_143222 R at Dr Pepper museum in WacoR at Dr Pepper museum in Waco, TX - yes, an entire museum dedicated to the history of Dr Pepper - on top of a replica of a vintage truck that once was used for delivery of Dr Pepper. September 2018.
Date: 09/15/2018
R at Dr Pepper museum in Waco, TX - yes, an entire museum dedicated to the history of Dr Pepper - on top of a replica of a vintage truck that once was used for delivery of Dr Pepper.

This is not a bad museum to visit if one is interested in the history of soft drinks, such as bottle shapes and styles, old bottling processes, or vintage advertisements. Even without a special interest in any of this, it still held my attention.

September 2018

20180901_163116 E with the cat Eclipse before adoptionE with our new cat Eclipse at the animal shelter as we were meeting the cat. We adopted her (the cat, that is) that afternoon.
Date: 09/01/2018
E with our new cat Eclipse at the animal shelter as we were meeting the cat. We adopted her (the cat, that is) that afternoon.

September 2018.

20180901_174210 The unboxing of a catUnboxing the cat Eclipse after we brought her home from the animal shelter. The box was given to us by the shelter. She was very thin then, but after a week at our home she quickly became normal weight.
Date: 09/01/2018
Unboxing the cat Eclipse after we brought her home from the animal shelter. The box was given to us by the shelter. She was very thin then, but after a week at our home she quickly became normal weight.

September 2018

20180901_180704 Cat Eclipse on the day we brought her homeCat Eclipse hiding in the corner of the bathroom. As soon as we brought her home and "unboxed" her, she promptly disappeared into a corner of a bathroom and spent the day hiding there. By evening she became more comfortable to explore.
Date: 09/01/2018
Cat Eclipse hiding in the corner of the bathroom. As soon as we brought her home and "unboxed" her (see previous image), she promptly disappeared into a corner of a bathroom and spent the day hiding there. By evening she became more comfortable to explore.

She was very skinny when we got her, but in about a week she became a normal weight cat.

September 2018

IMG_20180901_222425 Cat Eclipse exploring our homeCat Eclipse exploring our home at the end of first day, after she finally got brave to leave the bathroom corner where she was hiding.
Date: 09/01/2018
Cat Eclipse exploring our home at the end of first day, after she finally got brave to leave the bathroom corner where she was hiding.

September 2018

20180218 Cupcakes by ECupcakes that E's friends commissioned her to bake and paid her for them.
Date: 02/18/2018
Cupcakes that E's friends commissioned her to bake and paid her for them.

February 2018

IMG_20180218_184921 Independence JelloWe celebrated the centennial of Lithuania's independence modestly with three-color jello (the colors of Lithuanian flag), not to mention two days late.
Date: 02/18/2018
We celebrated the centennial of Lithuania's independence modestly with three-color jello (the colors of Lithuanian flag), not to mention two days late.

February 2018

IMG_20180128_153924 El Sass preschoolApparently in Austin there is preschool called El Sass. I'm sure they raise only the best-behaved children who never talk back. :-)
Date: 01/28/2018
Apparently in Austin there is preschool called El Sass. I'm sure they raise only the best-behaved children who never talk back. :-) Or maybe it's a front-end developer bootcamp for especially precocious young children.

January 2018

IMG_20180503_194514 Cookies with Austin attributesAt a hiring event for women developers at Magento, there were cookies with famous Austin attributes stamped on them: the Keep Austin Weird slogan, "Hi how are you" and "I love you so much" murals, the capitol. May 2018
Date: 05/03/2018
At a hiring event for women developers at Magento, there were cookies with famous Austin attributes stamped on them: the Keep Austin Weird slogan, "Hi how are you" and "I love you so much" murals, the capitol. May 2018

IMG_20181031_185600 R as a vampireR made a dapper vampire this Halloween, if I may say so myself.
Date: 10/31/2018
R made a dapper vampire this Halloween, if I may say so myself.
October 2018

IMG_20180419_182913 Austin Quantum Computing meetupAustin Quantum Computing meetup at WeWork in April of 2018. Cory (second from the right), a graduate student at University of Texas at Austin, talks about the latest news in the Quantum Computing field. Click the image to read more.
Date: 04/19/2018
Austin Quantum Computing meetup at WeWork in April of 2018. Cory (second from the right), a graduate student at University of Texas at Austin, talks about the latest news in the Quantum Computing field. Among them were Google's 72-qubit quantum computer Bristlecone and open-source projects such as quantum chemistry library Quantum Fermion. As Cory said, this project is looking for collaborators, and they don't even need to be quantum computing scientists. Even "classical" software developers could contribute by writing interfaces for QISKit or LiQUID or other quantum simulating packages.

He also liked that there are now games being developed for quantum computers, as well as by and about quantum computers. He showed a demo of one such game, a quantum battleship version, or more accurately, battleship with partial NOT gates. You play it on a Jupyter notebook by typing Python statements, like in the early days of computing when you played text-based games. (I know, they still exist.) In many ways quantum computing culture is like the early classical computing culture.

Speaking of chemistry, Cory thinks the most promising applications are in chemistry or material science. If the thermal conductance of your sample matches what the quantum computing predicts, you know the quantum computer is correct. So that's the most promising way to verify if the quantum computers compute correctly. (One problem in quantum computing is that some quantum algorithms may be that much faster than classical ones that a classical computer may not even be able to verify a solution produced by a quantum computer.)

Quantum computers already simulating properties of some molecules that are too hard to simulate on a classical computer. Some of those molecules are very valuable, because they are used in nitrogen production for fertilizers, as a catalyst.

April 2018

IMG_20180428_105147 Topic modeling presentation at Natural Language Processing hackathonBecky, a data scientist that does Natural Language Processing for an Austin company, talks about topic modeling at a NLP hackathon in April of 2018, hosted by Women in Data Science Austin.
Date: 04/28/2018
Becky, a data scientist that does Natural Language Processing for an Austin company, talks about topic modeling at a NLP hackathon in April of 2018, hosted by Women in Data Science Austin.

"Common models attempt to find some topic stucture in documents.

Models find probability that words occur together and then they are grouped into topics.

IMG_20180428_102914 Natural Language Processing hackathon attendeesAs many attendees of the Natural Language Processing hackathon, organized by Women Who Code Austin, as could fit in the picture.
Date: 04/28/2018
As many attendees of the Natural Language Processing hackathon, organized by Women Who Code Austin, as could fit in the picture.

This short, work-life balance-respecting hackathon, started out with a presentation from a data scientist Becky. She first introduced us to the three cornerstone approaches of NLP -- summarization, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis.

IMG_20180428_103012 Attendees of Natural Language Processing hackathonAttendees of Natural Language Processing hackathon hosted by Women in Data Science Austin. The rightmost is Becky, the presenter, who is talking to one of the organizers (not in the picture).
Date: 04/28/2018
Attendees of Natural Language Processing hackathon hosted by Women in Data Science Austin. The rightmost is Becky, the presenter, who is talking to one of the organizers (not in the picture).

This short, work-life balance-respecting hackathon, started out with a presentation from a data scientist Becky. She first introduced us to the three cornerstone approaches of NLP -- summarization, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis.

IMG_20180428_104348 The three pillars of Natural Language ProcessingFrom Becky's presentation, here are the three cornerstone approaches: sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and summarization, along with the methods used for each, such as Latent Semantic Analysis, Latent Dirichlet Allocation, and more.
Date: 04/28/2018
From Becky's presentation, here are the three cornerstone approaches: sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and summarization.

Sentiment analysis quantifies the subjective "emotion" in the text. It is commonly rule-based, but can also use knowledge base, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), and Support Vector Machines (SVM).

Topic modeling finds abstract concepts that occur in the body of texts (also known as corpus). It commonly uses Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), but can also use Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF).

Summarization reduces a text to several key phrases or a representative sentence. It commonly uses TextRank and LexRank, but can also use knowledge base / knowledge graphs.

IMG_20180428_104732 Natural Language Processing: summarizationBecky explains that summarization can be extractive or abstractive. Extractive summarization selects a few representative sentences from the text, while abstractive summarization creates a summary of the text. She gave examples of each in this slide.
Date: 04/28/2018
Becky explains that summarization can be extractive or abstractive. Extractive summarization selects a few representative sentences from the text, while abstractive summarization creates a summary of the text.

As an example, Becky gave a phrase: "The Army Corps of Engineers, rushing to meet President Bush's promise to protect New Orleans by the start of the 2006 hurricane season, installed defective flood-control pumps last year despite warnings from its own expert that the equipment would fail during the storm, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press."

Extractive summarization would extract such phrases from it as:

- Army Corps of Engineers

- President Bush

- New Orleans

- defective flood-control pumps

In contrast, abstractive summarization would generate such phrases as:

- government agency

- presidential orders

- defective equipment

- storm preparation

- hurricane Katrina

I can't quite put my finger on it, but it seems that extractive summarization extracts names of specific entities, but not much information as to what happened to those entities or what did they do. But abstractive summarization seems to "understand" what those entities actually represent and what they do, and thereby extracts more "gist" from the paragraph. I could be wrong about it, of course.

According to Becky, extractive summarization is a mostly solved problem by now. TextRank algorithm takes care of it. But abstractive summarization is a very difficult, unsolved problem, though knowledge graphs help.

The short, work-life balance-respecting Natural Language Processing hackathon started out with the presentation from the data scientist Becky. She first introduced us to the three cornerstone approaches of NLP -- summarization, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis.

20181224_185339 E and R in the Bastrop Trail of LightsE and R at the Bastrop Trail of Lights (they actually call it River of Lights here) in the Fisherman's Park in downtown Bastrop by the Colorado River. The trail of lights is small and single-colored, except for the tunnel (seen in the distance).
Date: 12/24/2018
E and R in their holiday hats at the Bastrop Trail of Lights (they actually call it River of Lights here) in the Fisherman's Park in downtown Bastrop by the Colorado River. In the background you can see the bridge over the river. The trail of lights is small and single-colored, except for the tunnel (seen straight ahead in the distance).

December 2018

20181224_185810 Under the Bastrop blinkenlight tunnelE and R under the Bastrop tunnel of blinkenlights. This tunnel is the central attraction of Bastrop River of Lights. December 2018.
Date: 12/24/2018
E and R under the Bastrop tunnel of blinkenlights. This tunnel is the central attraction of Bastrop River of Lights. The "river" itself -- what in Austin would be called Trail of Lights -- consists of a half-mile stretch that goes through the Fisherman's Park and along the Colorado River. The trees in it are decorated with Christmas lights, mostly white except for this tunnel that also has some multi-colored lights (though they are not very visible in this picture).

December 2018

20181224_190030 Me under the Bastrop blinkenlight tunnelMe under the Bastrop tunnel of blinkenlights. This tunnel is the central attraction of Bastrop River of Lights. December 2018.
Date: 12/24/2018
Me under the Bastrop tunnel of blinkenlights. This tunnel is the central attraction of Bastrop River of Lights. The "river" itself -- what in Austin would be called Trail of Lights -- consists of a half-mile stretch that goes through the Fisherman's Park and along the Colorado River. The trees in it are decorated with Christmas lights, mostly white except for this tunnel that also has some multi-colored lights (though they are not very visible in this picture).

20181225_101207 E with Christmas presentsE with the Christmas presents she got this year.
Date: 12/25/2018
E with the Christmas presents she got this year.

December 2018

20181225_103232 R with Christmas presentsR rides a present from Norway, a stuffed bear, while wearing a present from Lithuania. He has relatives in far-flung places!
Date: 12/25/2018
R rides a present from Norway, a stuffed bear, while wearing a present from Lithuania. He has relatives in far-flung places!

December 2018

20181225_103232 R with a stuffed whaleR with another of his giant stuffed Christmas presents, a whale. Currently killer whales and orcas are his favorite animals (snakes are over). As he always does while posing for pictures these days, he's dabbing.
Date: 12/25/2018
R with another of his giant stuffed Christmas presents, a whale. Currently killer whales and orcas are his favorite animals (snakes are over). As he always does while posing for pictures these days, he's dabbing.

December 2018

2018-06-0419_39_56.224440 R with his self-portraitThat's a rather unflattering view of himself, I'm sorry to say. June 2018
Date: 03/11/2019
That's a rather unflattering view of himself, I'm sorry to say. June 2018

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